Listening intently to Ramalinga Adigal's Thiruarutpa song played on the player while I drove him to Bukit Rotan during one of his visits to Malaysia to pay a courtesy call on Shivasri A. P. Muthukumara Shivachariyaar who invited him to his new Sri Shakti Temple under construction, Tavayogi told me it was in inner journey that the saint had sung about though it very much seemed to be journeying on a different plane or dimension apart from the world we live in. I had little idea that one day I too shall walk the journey externally and internally.
The first thing he did when I arrived at his Kallar ashram in August of 2005 just a month after he left for India was to take me on a journey that he classified as the true journey. We left for the closest hills in Uthiyur where he had meditated after leaving his family and home at Tirupur to become a wandering mendicant a vow he had taken some thirty years earlier as a young successful lad who had lost his eyesight. He showed me the cave he stayed in. The wooden improvised gate to keep away animals from entering the cave was still there. The presenter and host of BBCs Earth's "Cheetah Family and Me", expresses his fear too in sleeping out in the Kalahari. "Generally, when you go to bed, when all your worries are over.. put off the light.. fall asleep.. as for tonight I have 1 or 2 concerns, about the things creeping, crawling, prowling, slithering."
We did spend a night in Agathiyar's cave in the Courtallam hills. Except for the moment that I was awaken by the noise of rats scuttering around, I slept well throughout the night though. At the break of dawn, I could see movements in the trees. As light broke, I realized that they were only monkeys.
This journey takes place internally as we traverse the many energy centers or chakras within another body of us that is closely tied to our physical which our senses and nervous system can feel and react to. Just as we visit the many pilgrimage spots and take in the energies prevalent here traveling the chakras, we finally arrive energized to the brim at the Lord's house when he shows his dance of creation. Though I have yet to witness this dance within he did come through a devotee and took our hands and had us dance with us during the last Sivarathri puja. We were honored and grateful for an audience with him in his chamber or rather have him come to our humble home and dance before us and have us join in too. I guess we are shown these externally before we are ready to see them within us.
Just as our pilgrimage on the physical world starts with a prayer to Lord Ganesha our internal journey begins at the site of the Muladhara that Ganesha presides over. Then just as the pilgrimages vary from person to person the internal journey varies too. Some might visit the six temples dedicated for Lord Murugan that is also placed along the internal path of energy flow. It could also be that one visits the many Sakti abodes. Visiting the five temples dedicated to Lord Shiva we come in contact with each of the five elements that form us and all of creation. Just as the Gods and Goddesses reside in the thousands of temples built for them, the physical body is also said to be the residence of a multitude of deities and sakthis. The chakras are defined by the many deities in the Hindu pantheon of Gods and Goddesses. Which brings us to the importance of worship of these deities and energies. But what we see around us is that people just learn the techniques and methods and proceed minus these prayers. Tradition teaches us to begin every undertaking or journey with a prayer. This is slowly being forgotten.
Having me pray at selected temples on my maiden journey to India in 2003, Agathiyar had Tavayogi take me to several abodes and caves of the Siddhas on my next visit in 2005. If the former was undertaken to rid myself or pay penance for my past karma and deeds, cleansing and clearing the vessel, the later came to fill the vessel with divine knowledge and energy. With further worship these energies that were all around us, taking abodes specifically in temples, in nature, in the five elements, and in saintly souls, now came visiting my home. As the puja intensified, they took abode in my home. My home became theirs. It became to be known as Agathiyar Vanam Malaysia. Here they began to perform wonders. This is what Lord Murugan, Agathiyar and Tavayogi want each home to turn into. So, I send the word around to some devotees and published on this blog Tavayogi's wish to see the mushrooming of more Agathiyar Vanam in Malaysia. Pathmanaban and his wife who had previously joined us on our rounds feeding the homeless on the streets, came forward to host the first Siddha puja in their home this evening. He told me he was a novice to conducting Siddha puja. Two more longtime devotees will be hosting the puja in their homes on 8th and 29th of April.